Troodon Posted August 23, 2018 Share Posted August 23, 2018 One if my favorite and cool dinosaur groups are alvarezsaurian with their unique forelimb. Here we have two new species being described from the early cretaceous of China, Xiyunykus pengi and Bannykus wulatensis. https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(18)30987-4#.W370yzRIRZ4.twitter One of the first informational Topics I put together 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaimin013 Posted August 23, 2018 Share Posted August 23, 2018 Very excited news! Can't wait to read more about this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troodon Posted August 23, 2018 Author Share Posted August 23, 2018 Blog https://phys.org/news/2018-08-rare-intermediate-fossils-insight-evolution.html Newspaper https://www.heritagedaily.com/2018/08/how-did-alvarezsaurian-dinosaurs-evolve-monodactyl-hand/121484 George Washington University https://mediarelations.gwu.edu/rare-intermediate-fossils-give-researchers-insight-evolution-bird-dinosaur 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troodon Posted August 24, 2018 Author Share Posted August 24, 2018 Closeup of bones and one of the sites, CoE in Palaeosciences 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DD1991 Posted August 24, 2018 Share Posted August 24, 2018 Alvarezsaurs until earlier in this decade were problematic in terms of exact systematic position within Coelurosauria, because Late Cretaceous alvarezsaurs had a single enlarged claw, shortened forelimbs, and long snouts with tiny teeth. Sereno (2001) concluded that alvarezsaurs were more related to ornithomimosaurs than to birds, and Haplocheirus helped clear up remaining questions over alvarezsaur ancestry by pushing the fossil record of the group to the Jurassic, and showing that early alvarezsaurs had a three-fingered hand and other parts of the basal coelurosaur bauplan. The discovery of Xiyunykus and Bannykus illuminate the progression of morphological features in Alvarezsauria over time, including the Cretaceous. This process reminds me of when horses developed a single functional toe over the course of the Cenozoic. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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